PLOT SUMMARY

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a romantic comedy for the 1990s
set in the 1590s. It imaginatively unfolds the witty, sexy and timeless
tale behind the creation of the greatest love story ever told.

It is the summer of 1593, and the rising young star of London's theatre
scene, Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), faces a scourge like no other:
a paralyzing bout of writer's block. While the great Eiizabethan age of
entertainment unfolds around him, Will is without inspiration or material.
No matter how he tries, and despite pressure from financiers and theatre
owners, he just can't seem to work up any enthusiasm for his latest play,
"Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." What Will needs is a muse - and
in an extraordinary moment in which life imitates art, he finds and falls
for a woman who draws him into his own dramatic adventure of star-crossed
love.

It all begins when Lady Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), desperate to become
an actor at a time when women
were forbidden from such depravity, disguises herself as a man to audition
for Will's play. But the guise slips away as their passion ignites. Now
Will's quill again begins to flour, this time turning love into words,
as Viola becomes his real-life Juliet and Romeo finds his reason to exist.
Yet all is not well in Will's world. For even as the parchment begins to
pile up, he is plagued by real-life twists of fate -including the unavoidable
reality that Lady Viola must marry the insufferable Lord
Wessex (Colin Firth) at the command of Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench).

In a whirl of mistaken identities, mixed-up messages and misbegotten
desires -- between bawdy brawls, duels with jealous husbands and dangerous
kisses -- Will Shakespeare searches for a resolution not only to his play
but to his own undying passion.

GENERAL
COMMENTS

"It's like Bullets Over Broadway only it's Swords over Shakespeare"-- Ben Affleck

"It has all the anguish of being young and doubting yourself and
your career, and it just happens to be Shakespeare."-- Geoffrey Rush

"There's nothing remotely academic about this film. It's about
first love."-- John Madden

From the SIL presskit:

THE EARL OF WESSEX (Colin Firth) FICTION

Wessex, the man betrothed to the young Viola is another contemporary
invention; there was no such man and indeed the county of Wessex did not
exist in Elizabethan times. However this type of character is similar to
the many English aristocrats who held titles, behaved with grand arrogance,
yet had no wealth. His marriage of convenience to Viola de Lesseps would
net him a large dowry and so absolve him of his financial difficulties.
The naming of this character might lead one to confuse him with the historical
figure, the Earl of Essex, another rather arrogant man who considered himself
to be a military and political genius and later was beheaded by the Queen.

TRIVIA

Filming began March 2, 1998. Locations include London, Holkham Hall,
and Shepperton.

Producer associations: Bob and Harvey Weinstein; producers of The Advocate
(1993), The English Patient (1996), My Life So Far aka
World of Moss (1998) and Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Casting Director, Michelle Guish was also casting director for A Month
in the Country (1987) and The English Patient (1996)

Gregory Truter and Roger Morlidge were also in TEP. Jim Carter, who holds
the record for appearing with Colin, appeared with him in Lost Empires,
AMITC and The Advocate.

COMMENTS BY
COLIN . . .

Colin Firth on the Earl of Wessex

"Whenever you take
on playing a villain, he has to cease to be a villain to you. If you judge
this man by his time, he's doing very little wrong. Reading about people
of this period is a bit like 'Dallas' with different frocks on. They're
all climbing all over each other [sic] for their own advancement. All Wessex
is doing is trying to marry for advantage, which is all anybody did of
that class. There's this sniveling little upstart of a writer who is getting
in the way, so it's perfectly understandable that he'd want to split his
throat."

COMMENTS
ABOUT COLIN . . .

The Sunday Times, August 21, 1994: (excerpt)

Quoting Colin's sister Kate: "Colin and I used to dress up,
I was the princess in jumble-sale ball gowns, he was the prince in cloak
and breeches. I knew Colin was talented because I'd seen him in school
plays and in productions at the Drama Centre. In my first year at London
University he did Hamlet. I sat there mesmerised, feeling terribly proud
and jealous at the same time. It wasn't horrible, destructive jealousy,
it was just that he was doing exactly what I wanted to do. After that his
career took off. It's an odd experience watching Colin act. He really becomes
the character. Most of the time I forget it's him, then suddenly I see
a smile or hear a tone of voice and think: "I know that person".

Variety: The supporting cast is
a dream, filling out a potpourri of character parts with undiluted strength.
Rush, who gets some of the catchiest quips, is sympathetic and funny. As
the smarmy Wessex, Firth is hateful without overdoing his part.

Film Journal International:Colin Firth
swaggers about in brocaded finery, having to suffer the loss of his
lady to yet another Fiennes brother. (It was Ralph who got the girl in
The English Patient.)

James Berardinelli: Colin Firth, the
British heartthrob who played the male lead in the recent, superlative
Pride and Prejudice TV mini-series, is Lord Wessex, the cold-hearted noble
who stands between Will and Viola's love.

Salon: Her parents intend to marry her
off to one Lord Wessex (Colin Firth, reprising the uptight sourpuss
role that made him a heartthrob in the BBC's most recent version of "Pride
and Prejudice"), who plans to take his bride to Virginia.

People Online: The course of true love
never does run smooth, though, for Paltrow has a fiancé (Firth,
stuffily amusing) who is hot to get his hands on her fortune by putting
a ring on her finger.

REVIEWS OF
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

From The London Times..11/29/98

In New York last weekend, a huddle of typically hard-boiled American
film critics gathered for a private screening of a new release, Shakespeare
in Love. It's Oscar-dash time, with films squeezing in to meet the end-of-year
deadline. Here was another contender, a little period-costume film that
cost its producers, Miramax, a measly $25m. But then, these are the guys
who pulled off triumphs such as Mrs Brown and The English Patient against
the odds. By the time our bunch of jaded viewers left the screening room,
they were convinced they had seen a masterpiece, the most finely written
and acted romantic comedy of the year: an Oscar cert. ....(Review continues
HERE
)